2022SummerMagazine_Web

INDUSTRY AND ENVIRONMENT IN HARMONY
INDUSTRY &
ENVIRONMENT
in Harmony
How do farming and industry
mitigate the risk of damaging the
environment in Northwest Indiana?
by Haleigh Vander Vinne
ver 800,000 people, U.S.
Steel, Cleveland Cliffs
Burns Harbor, and Indiana
Dunes National State Park call
Northwest Indiana home. Here,
you’ll find a volcano-like tower
producing dense clouds along
Lake Michigan’s shoreline with
its pockets of dunes, forest,
wetlands, prairies, and moraines.
Environment and industry live
together in Northwest Indiana,
but do they exist in harmony?
Companies and organizations
dedicated to bridging the gap
between what’s good for the
economy and the environment,
like Environmental Incorporated
and Shirley Heinze Land Trust,
are working towards that goal.
Diagnose and Clean:
Leaving a Site Better
Than When They
Found It
Geologists Michael Palm
and Tom Stevenson started
Environmental Incorporated
in 1996 to provide better
environmental solutions to
land use problems. As an
environmental consulting and
service company with 70+
years combined experience,
their forte has been in the
management of brownfields. The
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency defines brownfields as
land that may be corrupted by
the presence of a hazardous
substance, such as asbestos,
lead-based paint, and polluted
soil or groundwater. “It’s
interesting because the big
buzzword has been brownfields
for about 15 or 20 years now, but
we’ve been doing brownfields
since we’ve started. They just
weren’t called brownfields,”
said Stevenson.
Palm and Stevenson have
helped clients – ranging from
dry cleaners and gas stations to
U.S. Steel and municipal >>
Our focus is to leave a site
better than we found it... [while
also] doing good things for the
environment... and [being an]
industry advocate.”
— Michael Palm and Tom Stevenson
Geologists, Environmental Incorporated
14 VALPARAISO MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2022